This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Greetings and welcome. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, maybe good middle of the night, depending on when you're listening, where you are in the world. I wanna welcome you to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Today is episode number 450.
That's right, going strong every single day this year, bringing you the mission of starting a side hustle. What is a side hustle? Well, I'm glad you ask. It is an income generating project. It's not a hobby.
It's something that makes money for you. It's not a part-time job. It's something that has the potential to make money for you when you're doing something else. And for so many of the stories that we feature, in addition to the money, there's also some other important benefits. So listen, here is one of the most important benefits of all, a side hustle can bring you security in a world of uncertainty.
Like we know that we live in this world of uncertainty. We know that things change. We know that we can't trust a corporation with our wellbeing, even a good corporation, one that we enjoy working for, even a good organization, doing good work. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. We have to create our own security.
That is what a side hustle can do for you. I think that's one of the best things about this whole process. And today's story, I think, reflects this well, because it's about a guy in Denver who has a hobby, or it's like part hobby, part side hustle. It's making a hundred bucks a month, a few hundred bucks a month. So nothing to write home about.
But then after he gets laid off, he turns that hobby, or that initial side hustle, eventually into a full-time gig that earns more than $8,000 a month. We could call this Side Hustle Saves the Day, when an SEO expert is laid off. Stay tuned in, I'll bring you that whole story. First, a quick little thank you to today's sponsor. [Music]
John Doherty is a search engine and marketing professional who started his side hustle when he had a lead on a job that he didn't have time for.
He sent that lead to a friend and asked if he'd be willing to pay $50 for it. The friend agreed, sent John the money, and then landed the project. John then realized that he was a connector. After that initial success, the idea for Credo, which was first called Hire Gun, was born. John bought a domain and put it up on a hosting account he already had.
At the time, clients were coming to him for consulting jobs, but he didn't have the time to commit to them. He hoped that this platform could serve as a bridge between those clients and other experts he knew. From the beginning, it was a win-win, although not a huge financial success. John could refer people he knew were experts. He would get a small percentage back for the work he was doing in connecting them.
He worked on the project for three to five hours a month, and that made him anywhere from $100 to $500 a month. Not a lot of money, but not bad for a few hours work. Things became more interesting in September of 2015, however, when John was laid off from his full-time job. For a lot of people, getting laid off means you have to start from scratch and figure out your next move. But John had already laid the foundations of Credo and was able to shift it from a side hustle.
He spent a few hours working on to a mostly full-time endeavor. Of course, the path wasn't always smooth. A few months into working full-time, he received a cease-and-desist letter for the original company name he used. Apparently, another company already had higher gun trademarked. He learned a valuable lesson.
Be sure and research the name you're thinking about using to make sure it isn't already trademarked or copyrighted. He had already been thinking about rebranding for a variety of reasons, but the cease-and-desist letter certainly sped up the process. He wanted to make sure that the new name he chose wasn't just already spoken for, but that also it was a more gender-neutral name that appealed to a lot of people. He sent out a survey and a variety of ideas, and in the end, Credo, a play on the word credibility, came out on top. With that, he launched his new rebranded website, getcredo.com.
His initial list of marketing providers was mostly made up of friends in the industry that he knew and respected, and he kept track of them on a Google spreadsheet. Now, this wasn't sustainable. It was a long-term growth method. So he moved from that Google Doc to a list of providers on his website, where he's able to add a lot more detail and keep the model scalable. Clients looking to hire can also go through the site and then look at those providers.
The revenue comes through two main membership models. One is an annual membership, where all new providers start. Pricing varies depending on the type of provider. Solo consultants pay about $300 a year. Agencies pay about $700 a year.
At the second level of membership, called preferred, providers pay a monthly retainer to Credo, plus a percentage of their monthly billed work. That membership level is where the bulk of the revenue comes from. On the client side, John has a different process. He works closely with clients to figure out their project goals and budget, and is then able to recommend which providers might be the best fit for them. All right, so how's it all going?
How is it working out? Well, when it was just a side hustle, it brought in, as I said, $100 to $500 a month. But now that he's focused, rebranded, and devoted time to it, Credo is bringing in $25,000 a month, at least in revenue, a little bit of a jump there. And after expenses, including wages for the staff he eventually hired, that comes out to around $8,000 of pure profit each month. So $25,000 gross income, $8,000 net income each month.
It just goes to show that spending a few hours a month on a side hustle might be laying the groundwork for something much bigger, if the need arises. John's advice to other people looking to start a similar model is to make sure you focus on the demand side. It can be pretty easy to find people who are looking for work, but you have to make sure you consistently have work available in the form of clients who are needing work done. So for best results, focus much more on them. Well, it is indeed an unstable world out there, and that's why you need to create your own stability.
John's path from hustle to full-time income shows that even a project that earns a few hundred dollars a month just might end up being your lifesaver. All right, just a couple of quick points from me. This episode reminded me loosely of episode 182. That was all about a guy who runs a junk removal service, and on the side, he hands out his business card and gets paid $22,000 a year for referring customers to real estate agents. So in that episode, he hasn't built this whole huge platform like John has done here.
He's kind of taken advantage of the resources available to him, the kind of work that he's doing, and the needs of the people that he's encountering on a daily basis. So depending on the kind of work you do or the kind of side hustle that you choose to start, there may be a way for you to get paid as a connector as well or to make these kind of referrals or to otherwise facilitate business between people. And lastly, I just want to highlight this advice from John about focusing on the demand side. Basically what he means is that there's no shortage of people who want to be service providers or happy to be listed on any given site and so on, but for this to succeed, you really need to have enough clients or customers. This is the same problem that a lot of platforms run into.
They want to set up some kind of auction site. They want to set up some kind of bartering site or whatever it is, but they only think about one side of the equation. They don't actually think about how they're going to be able to draw enough clients or customers to make this thing work. Or if they think about it, they don't think about it enough. So if you're considering anything like that, make sure you start with that as your foundational base.
Because if you have the interested clients and customers, it's not going to be a problem to find the service providers. At least it's not as much of a problem, let's say. Anyway, good story. Congrats to John. I'm glad he was able to take his part-time hobby hustle to something that's doing so well and is providing him the security that he needs.
I hope that you over there are working on your security, too. Hope you're working on your long-term plan, your short-term plan, all the different plans. Do let me know how it's going and how we can help you. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/450.
That's right, 450. Much more is on the way starting with episode 451 tomorrow. I hope you'll join me for it. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
